Our Goal: Your Research Success

The Department of Quantitative Health Sciences has expertise in all aspects
of clinical research. From study design to statistical analysis to preparing
funding applications, we will help you and your department achieve sound scientific
results from your research project in a timely manner. Each year, we co-author
hundreds of publications and receive millions of dollars in external funding.
We have the knowledge and skills to partner with each Cleveland Clinic Institute.

Cleveland Clinic has its own team of biostatisticians, epidemiologists, outcomes
researchers, database developers and programmers in the Department of Quantitative
Health Sciences. Our pledge is to be better, faster, and/or less expensive
than any research group that operates outside Cleveland Clinic.

QHS: An Excellent Resource for You!

The Department is available to all Cleveland Clinic physicians, researchers, and support staff on a pay-as-you-go or dedicated-FTE fee basis. Do you need help training staff for an upcoming research project? We will collaborate with your residents, fellows, medical students and support team on designing and conducting clinical studies using efficient data collecting methods and other important research tools.

News

In the field of population pharmaco-kinetics/dynamics (PK/PD) inter-individual variability is represented by model parameter distributions. In this paper Radivoyevitch et al. compare stochastic process PD models that capture the probability of complete eradication of colony forming units (CFU) to standard deterministic PD models that track only average CFU numbers. For neonatal intravenous gentamicin dosing regimens directed against Escherichia coli, stochastic calculations predict that the first dose is crucial. For example, a single 6mg/kg dose is predicted to have a higher eradication probability than four daily 4mg/kg doses. Conclusion: regimens with larger first doses but smaller total doses deserve further investigation.

Statistics courses that focus on data analysis in isolation, discounting the scientific inquiry process, may not motivate students to learn the subject. By involving students in other steps of the inquiry process, such as generating hypotheses and data, students may become more interested and vested in the analysis step. Additionally, such an approach might better prepare students to tackle real research questions outside of the statistics classroom. Dr. Nowacki emphasizes that statistical problem solving is an investigative cycle and should be taught within that context. As an illustration of such an approach, she developed a classroom activity utilizing the popular Hasbro board game Operation, which requires student involvement in identifying the research question, designing the study and database, data collection and analysis. Intended to mimic a real-world research scenario, this fun activity provides a guided yet flexible research experience from start to finish.